Shein: Inside the Chinese factories fuelling the company’s success

In some areas of Guangzhou, a bustling port on the Pearl River in southern China, the murmur of sewing machines is a regular.

It spins through the open panels of businesses from morning until late at night, as they finish the t-shirts, pants, skirts, jeans and apparel that will be shipped to replace wardrobes in more than 150 countries.

This is the noise of Panyu, the village known as the” Shein village”, a warren of companies that power the nation’s largest quick clothing store.

” If there are 31 days in a month, I did work 31 time”, one employer told the BBC.

The majority of them claimed to only have one day off per quarter.

The BBC spent several days these: we visited 10 companies, spoke to four entrepreneurs and more than 20 employees. Additionally, we spent time at cotton manufacturers and labor markets.

We discovered that the workforce, who works behind sewing machines for about 75 hours per week in violation of Taiwanese labor laws, is the beating heart of this kingdom.

These time are not uncommon in Guangzhou, an commercial hub for remote employees in search of a higher salary, or in China, which has long been the country’s unrivalled factory.

But they add to a growing list of questions about Shein, once a little-known Chinese-founded company that has become a global behemoth in just over five years.

Still privately-owned, it is estimated to be worth about £36bn ($60bn) and is now eyeing a listing on the London Stock Exchange.

But, its meteoric rise has been marred by controversy over allegations of forced labor and its treatment of employees.

Last year it admitted to finding children working in its factories in China.

The business declined to be interviewed, but it did say in a statement to the BBC that” Shein is committed to ensuring the honest and respectful care of all employees within our source network” and that it is investing tens of millions of dollars in improving management and conformity.

We work with all source ring companions to uphold our code of conduct, it continued. However, Shein works with accountants to maintain compliance.”

Shein’s victory lies in quantity- the products online runs into the hundreds of thousands- and heavy discounts: £10 dresses, £6 sweaters, prices that hover below £8 on regular.

Profits has soared, outstripping the likes of H&amp, M, Zara and the UK’s Primark. The cut-price profits are driven by areas like the Shein community, home to some 5, 000 companies, most of them Shein manufacturers.

The structures have been dug up to make room for sewing machines, floats of cloth, and sacks filled with material scraps. The seemingly endless loop of sales and selections keeps opening the basement doors to them.

As the day passes, the bookshelves fill up with warehouse-bound, distinct vinyl bags labelled with a now-distinctive five-letter word.

However, even after 22:00, the sewing machines and the workers scrambling over them continue to work as more material is delivered in trucks so complete that often color bolts fall onto the factory floor.

” We generally work, 10, 11 or 12 days a time,” says a 49-year-old woman from Jiangxi unwilling to give her name”. We work on Sundays for about three days less.

She is in an alley, where a few people are huddled around a string of report boards.

They are reading the work descriptions on the table while checking the embroidery on a pair of trousers dangling over it.

This is Shein’s offer network. The companies have agreements to produce clothes on get, some small and some large. If the pants are a strike, orders will ramp up and therefore had production. Then, to meet the demand, factories employ temporary workers.

The migrant worker from Jiangxi is looking for a short-term employment opportunity, and the chinos are an option.

” We earn so little. She claims that the cost of living is now so high and that she hopes to get enough money to return to her two children who live with their grandparents.

” We get paid per piece,” she explains”. Depending on how challenging the item is, Something simple like a t-shirt is one-two yuan]less than a dollar ] per piece and I can make around a dozen in an hour.”

Making that choice requires carefully looking at the stitching on the chinos. Workers are calculating the amount of money they can make in an hour and how much they will be able to make from each piece of clothing around her.

The mornings when workers and scooters rush past the breakfast dumpling cart, the cups of steaming soybean milk, and the hopeful farmer selling chicken and duck eggs fill the alleys of Panyu.

Standard working hours appear to be from 08: 00 to well past 22: 00, the BBC found.

This is consistent with a report from the Swiss advocacy group Public Eye, which was based on interviews with 13 textile workers at factories producing clothes for Shein.

They discovered that some employees were putting in excessive overtime hours. It noted the basic wage without overtime was 2, 400 yuan ( £265,$ 327 )- below the 6, 512 yuan the Asia Floor Wage Alliance says is needed for a” living wage”. But the workers we spoke to managed to earn anywhere between 4, 000 and 10, 000 yuan a month.

” These hours are not unusual, but it’s clear that it’s illegal and it violates basic human rights,” said David Hachfield from the group”. It constitutes a significant amount of exploitation, and it needs to be made clear.

According to Chinese labor laws, employees should ensure that their hours are at least one rest day per week, which is required. An employer should request this time for a reason if it is necessary.

While Shein’s headquarters are now in Singapore, there is no denying the majority of its products are made in China.

And Shein’s success has drawn the attention of Washington, which is increasingly wary of Chinese firms.

In June, Donald Trump’s pick for US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said he had” grave ethics concerns” about Shein’s” deep ties to the People’s Republic of China”:” Slave labour, sweatshops, and trade tricks are the dirty secrets behind Shein’s success, “he wrote.

Not everyone would agree with Rubio’s choice of words to describe the conditions at Shein’s suppliers. But rights groups say that the long working hours, which have become a way of life for many in Guangzhou, are unfair and exploitative.

The day’s rhythm is dictated by the machines.

When the workers, metal plates and chopsticks in hand, head into the canteen to buy food, they pause for lunch and dinner. If there is no more space to sit, they stand in the street.

One woman spent just 20 minutes consuming her meal, claiming,” I’ve been working in these factories for more than 40 years. She had just begun this day.

Inside, the factories we visit are not cramped. There is enough lighting, and industrial-sized fans have been installed to keep workers cool. In response to the two cases of child labor in the supply chain last year, strong posters urge staff members to report underage workers.

The company is keeping an eye on its suppliers, according to The BBC, ahead of its plans to go public on the London Stock Exchange.

” This is about their reputation,” says Sheng Lu, a professor in Fashion and Apparel Studies at the University of Delaware”. If Shein is successful in getting an IPO, it means that the business is regarded as reputable. But if they are to keep the confidence of investors, they have to take some responsibility.”

One of the biggest challenges Shein faces is accusations that it sources cotton from China’s Xinjiang region.

After being accused of using forced labor by members of the Muslim Uyghur minority to produce cotton, which Beijing has consistently refuted, the company’s reputation has fallen out of favor.

The only way to get around this criticism is to be more transparent, Prof Sheng says.

I believe Shein will find it very challenging unless you fully release your factory list and unless you make your supply chain more open to the public.

A major advantage, he adds, is that Shein’s supply chain is in China:” Very few countries have a complete supply chain. China has this- and nobody can compete.”

Aspiring rivals like Vietnam and Bangladesh import raw materials from China to produce clothing. However, Chinese factories rely entirely on local sources for everything, including zippers and buttons. So it’s easy to make a variety of garments, and they are able to do it quickly.

That is particularly true for Shein, whose algorithm determines orders. The companies are aware of the need to work with factories to produce more quickly and efficiently if customers repeatedly click on a particular dress or spend longer looking at wool sweaters.

For workers in Guangzhou, this can be a challenge.

” Shein has its pros and cons, “one factory owner told us”. The good news is that the order eventually becomes large, but it eventually becomes profitable, and it is fixed.

Shein, given its size and influence, is a hard bargainer. So factory owners have to cut costs elsewhere, often resulting in lower staff wages.

” Before Shein, we produced and sold clothes on our own,” said an owner of three factories”. We could determine the cost, determine the price, and determine the profit. Shein now has control over the price, so you must consider ways to lower it.

When orders peak, however, it’s a bonanza. The company ships around one million packages a day on average, according to data from ShipMatrix, a logistics consultancy firm.

” Shein is a pillar of the fashion industry,” said Guo Qing E, a Shein supplier.

” I started when Shein started. I witnessed its rise. To be honest, Shein is an awesome company in China. I think it will become stronger, because it pays on time. This is where it is most trustworthy.

” If payment for our goods is due on the 15th, no matter whether it’s millions or tens of millions, the money will be paid on time”.

Shein, with its gruelling hours and sometimes lower wages, may not be a source of comfort to all its workers. But some people find it to be a source of pride.

” This is the contribution we Chinese people can make to the world”, said a 33- year-old supervisor from Guangdong, who didn’t want to give her name.

After their final meal, workers are heading back to factories after dark because it’s dark outside. Although she acknowledges the length of the hours,” we get along well with each other. We are like a family”.

The lights in a number of buildings remain lit after many workers leave for the night.

Some people work until midnight, one factory owner told us. They want to earn more money, he said.

After all, in London, Chicago, Singapore, Dubai and so many other places, someone is hunting for their next bargain.